Patient Contact Time and Prehospital Interventions in Hypotensive Trauma Patients: Should We Reconsider the "ABC" Algorithm When Time Is of the Essence?

Scott Ninokawa, Jessica Friedman, Danielle Tatum, Alison Smith, Sharven Taghavi, Patrick McGrew, Juan Duchesne

Am Surg. 2020 Aug;86(8):937-943

Introduction: There is disagreement in the trauma community concerning the extent to which emergency medical services (EMS) should perform on-scene interventions. Additionally, in recent years the "ABC" algorithm has been questioned in hypotensive patients. The objective of this study was to quantify the delay introduced by different on-scene interventions.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of hypotensive trauma patients brought to an urban level 1 trauma center by EMS from 2007 to 2018 was performed, and patients were stratified by mechanism of injury and new injury severity score (NISS). Independent samples median tests were used to compare median on-scene times.

Results: Among 982 trauma patients, median on-scene time was 5 minutes (interquartile range 3-8). In penetrating trauma patients (n = 488) with NISS of 16-25, intubation significantly increased scene time from 4 to 6 minutes (P < .05). In penetrating trauma patients with NISS of 10-15, wound care significantly increased scene time from 3 to 6 minutes (P < .05). Tourniquet use, interosseous (IO) access, intravenous (IV) access, and needle decompression did not significantly increase scene time.

Conclusion: Understanding that intubation increases scene time in penetrating trauma, while IV and IO access do not, alterations to the traditional "ABC" algorithm may be warranted. Further investigation of prehospital interventions is needed to determine which are appropriate on-scene.